Decisions
by h3id
Summary: This story begins at the end of Ouroboros. What happens if Harper destroys the tesseract machine?
1. Intro

Disclaimer: I do not own Andromeda

Seamus Zelazny Harper had a decision to make.

Standing in the machine shop and pointing a gauss gun at his creation, the tesseract machine.

The very machine that killed his friend Hohne in front of him and seemingly substituted his other friend, Trance, for a…person.

A person that he, Seamus Harper, did not know and probably never would.

Everyone stood around the tesseract machine while Harper aimed at it. He seemingly had made up his mind and obviously chose to die for the sake of Hohne's life.

While Tyr and Dylan were busy arguing who would have to kill Harper, Rommie and Beka just stood silently watching the scene.

Harper seemingly wanted to destroy what he worked so hard for, a remarkable, very not-harper-like change of mind. Maybe they all had seen another person in the engeneer. No member of the crew would have believed that he actually could be willing to give his life to save another person's.

Meanwhile Rekeeb the Perseid waited for Harper's decision leaning against the wall and holding his hand, aching from Dylan's force lance shot. He had tried to destroy the machine on his own, failing miserably. If Harper really would follow the path he just chose, Hohne would live again. This was reason enough for the perseid to stop all efforts destroying the machine by himself.

Trance from the future knew what she had to do. Circling around the machine she searched for the switch that would initiate the tesseract process and thus save Harper's life.

Dylan and Tyr made a final attempt convincing Harper not to destroy the machine. Harper though did not hear a word they said.

He watched the being circling around his tesseract machine. While she looked like Trance, something was different, besides the color. She looked aggressive, cunning. Whatever had made her this way, it was now doing the same to his real Trance. And Hohne…

Hohne alone was more than enough of a reason to end his life. Hohne, the most brilliant and ingenious person he ever knew.

Harper had decided. After all, there still was a small flicker of hope left for him.

More than enough for the engeneer to bet his life on.

While Andromeda's hull was pierced by Magog craft and Magog from the near past crowded the Hallways fighting against ancient warriors and future invaders, Harper placed his bet.

Seamus Zelazny Harper pulled the trigger.


	2. Chapter 1

"NO!"

The exclamation coming from Future Trance echoed through the machine shop as Harper's tesseract machine exploded.

Looking at the people in the room with a puzzled look on her face her vision caught Harper's. For a few seconds they looked in each other's eyes. Harper could see pain and sadness in hers. He saw her becoming transparent and watched silently as she slowly faded out of vision. She

vanished and was gone only seconds after the machine's destruction.

"Rommie, report!" Dylan's command cut the silence like a blade.

Rommie appeared on a wall screen. "No Magog within sensor range. I am detecting one lifesign on the Maru and another one in the Slipstream core."

"Well, at least it worked - Mr. Harper!"

Harper had jumped up and ran out of the machine shop in a split second.

Tyr stepped forward. "Should I go get him back?" he asked.

"No, let him go. Andromeda?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Where is Mr. Harper going?"

"He is heading for his quarters."

"Alright. When he activates privacy mode, do not stop monitoring his life signs. We need to know when he gets…close."

"He already is. The larvae will kill him in the near future. Three hours is the extreme maximum, one hour is realistic."

"Alright. Let's get some rest then. Get the Perseids back to Sinti. And order Trance to the conference room."

"Yes, Captain."

With that, Andromeda disappeared from the screen and Rommie left the room, leaving Dylan with Beka and Tyr.

"You want to leave Harper alone in there?" Beka spoke up.

Dylan sighed. "Well, there's not much we can do for him. He wants to be alone, so let him. He said he didn't want to be killed by the larvae. When he has decided otherwise just now, it is not our right to judge if it's good or not."

"Are you crazy? There can't be anything worse than being eaten by Magog! He must be shocked or something, come on, you can't simply ignore that!"

"Rommie will tell me when his condition is getting critical. As long as he can live I want him to. And if he decides he wants to do so alone in his quarters I will not stop him."

"I didn't suspect you to think that way, Dylan. If Harper dies a painful death as Magog food, you will have an opportunity to feel comparable feelings, I can ensure that to you!"

With that said, Beka left for the Maru.

"She is acting emotional. Inefficient."

"Well, Tyr, I can't blame her for that. Harper isn't really well at the moment."

"Even if I do not approve the way she acts, I think Beka is right. You should not let Harper stay alone in his quarters."

"Then we do not share the same opinion here. Please excuse me. If someone needs me, I'll be in the conference room."

After Dylan had left the room, Tyr remained. Looking at the machine he shook his head before leaving the room as well.

Shortly after reaching his quarters Harper was totally occupied with work. The plan he had made up required some preparations. Mumbling to himself he programmed on a small handheld computer.

"Oh no, you little brats. You nearly did it but you won't make it! I can still kick all your asses in the ten minutes i've left - oh yes I can and I will…Hehehehe - Ouch!! You little bastards! You wait ten goddam' minutes or I'll have Tyr shove his blady fist up all your…ah, there we are."

With a satisfied look on his face Harper put the computer down. Plugging a cable in his dataport he entered Andromeda's mainframe.

As Dylan entered the conference room, Trance was already waiting there. She looked up with a confused look on her face.

"Hello."Dylan sat on a chair where he could look her in the face.

"Hi, Dylan."

"I don't want to waste much time and come straight to the point. What happened back there?"

"What do you mean?" Trance seemingly tried to look extra-innocent and put on a shy smile.

"You know damn well! I want to know why you changed and why you were the only one doing so. It was clearly visible that this person was some kind of…you from the future."

"Indeed she was. I decided to change places with her so you could profit from her knowledge."

"But noone else saw their future-"

"-Beka also did."

"-This is not the point. Beka did not change places with anyone. And also, you are part of my crew. How could you just leave without telling anybody?"

"I didn't leave. I was still here."

"How come I just can't believe you are willing to tell me what you were up to?"

"Dylan, listen. The-"

Andromeda's hologram appeared. "Harpers lifesigns are fading. He dies now."

Dylan got up. "We'll resume that talk later, Trance!" With that, he ran out of the room.

Trance sat still for some seconds, deeply in thought, before getting up as well.

As Dylan hurried through the Andromeda, he got new informations. Appearently Rommie already was at the door to Harper's quarters. "You have my permission to open the door! Privacy mode is cancelled by Captain's order!"

"Aye, sir." Rommie's voice replied through the communicator. When Dylan finally reached Harper's quarters out of breath, he sensed something being wrong. Rommie and Tyr were standing on the hallway.

"What is it? Why aren't you helping him? Why are you standing out here?"

Tyr stepped forward and patted on Rommie's shoulder. "I'll leave that to you" he told the android and with that he walked away.

Dylan approached Rommie and demanded an explanation.

"See for yourself" was the only answer she had for him.

When Dylan entered Harper's quarters, he stopped at the door. It was incredibly cold in there. A small computer was laying on the floor, the only light source in the room. Harper lay

on his bed, incredibly pale, with closed eyes. Dylan begann to feel cold and left the room after he had picked up the small computer from the floor.

"Rommie, what happened?"

"I don't know. Harper seemingly hacked into my mainframe and has set the room temperature to –250°C."

"But the room wasn't so cold already. He must have done something else as well."Dylan held up the computer. "Can you find out what?"

Rommie took the computer and touched the screen a few times. "Well, judging from this," she held up the screen, "Harper has programmed nanobots he injected himself to put his body into stasis, thus freezing him from the inside."

"Okay, well, where are we going to put him?"

Rommie thought a second. "The nanobots can hold his temperature stable for a short time, so I think the fitting place for him would be med deck. Trance can spend more time trying to remove the larvae there. I will have a stasis cell ready on med deck in ten minutes."

Just then Trance came around the corner, seemingly exhausted. Dylan shot Rommie a look and then turned towards Trance. "I have a long-time-patient for you."


	3. Chapter 2

Only 16 hours after Harper's stasis cell had been installed on med deck Dylan and Tyr left the Andromeda with the Maru to search for weapon dealers on Haukon Tau. Dylan announced to continue his conversation with Trance after his return.

After the Maru was gone, the three remaining crew members were trying to entertain themselves.

Watching Harper frozen on med deck wasn't nearly as entertaining as watching Harper fix something. When Trance left Beka and Rommie for hydroponics, the two women got bored quickly.

Beka hoped Rommie could have some idea of how to end boredom. "So, what are we going to do now? We can't go away because we are waiting for Dylan and Tyr and this "here" is in total nowhere. Absolutely nothing exists here."

"Well, you're on command right now. You tell me what to do, I'll do it."

Disappointed, Beka realized it was her after all who had to entertain the both of them. "Okay…What about…You check the damage on your systems and I'll tell Harper…Oh man. This can't be happening. I mean, who is going to repair you now?"

"I'm not sure. We definitively need an engeneer. Maybe we can pick up more crew members as well. After all, I still have about 3000 empty quarters."

"Are you telling me you want to hire new engeneers? When Harper wakes up, he'll kick their asses for messing up with your systems. If he doesn't die from the heart attack he'll get when he's awakened by some creepy hired mercenary guys."

That thought made Beka grin. "And what should we do with his giant sparky-stash? Nobody else drinks that stuff."

"Well, let's care about that later. Let's find a way to keep us entertained."

After a while they decided using the captain's basketball court was the best solution for all problems they were having at the moment.

After one hour of intense basketball, during which Rommie's play became unfairer with each passing minute, they decided to stop and rest.

Wiping the sweat from her face with a towel, Beka turned towards the Android. "You know, you play unfair. Your android strength and speed are too much for me already. Come on, the score is 35:186!"

"And?"

"And, you really did not have to foul me as well to ensure your victory 150 percent!"

"You're just mad because you lack _t3h pwnage_, babe."

"The WHAT?!"

Rommie's look showed irritation. "I…I don't know? My core-what the…searching for explanations, I say we head straight to The Command Deck!!!!!"

Without waiting for a response Rommie started walking out of the door backwards with superhuman speed, leaving behind a puzzled Beka.

The speaker system activated only seconds later.

"I, hereby crowned _Miss Andromeda Ascendant_ for over 300 consecutive years, order every living being on this ship to move their asses up to command. Please do so with acceptable momentum, I don't want to be forced to activate internal security. Today's lottery numbers are 1-3-37-42-43-48. Winning number is 0. Please flush the toilets after youu uuUussss sss… … ." Andromeda's voice faded and instantly the ship went dark.

The sudden darkness confused Beka so much she didn't realize the artificial gravity was gone as well until she bumped head-first into the basket.

"Ow! Crappy ship! Seems like a major blackout. And like some MAJOR AI-crazyness!"

Having no better idea, Beka decided going to command was the best option, but had to give up to the complete darkness.

At this moment Trance already was on the way to command. When the corridors went dark, she didn't stop walking. Deeply in thought, she knew the way without having to look. Walking without gravity though was not something even Trance could do. Forcefully brought back to reality she was floating through a dark corridor, desperately trying to grab something to hold on to.

After approximately 20 seconds dim red light activated illuminating the whole ship.

As Beka made her way to command, flying through the corridors which she found to be surprisingly fun, she stumbled upon Rommie. The android floated in a ridiculous position about 30 seconds flight time from command. Beka could see that her eyes were looking in opposite directions and judging from the state her body froze in she had been walking sideways on one leg and one arm.

Beka couldn't help but smirk and quickly rushed to command.

When she floated through the door, a strange scene played before her eyes.

While the whole ship was dark and only dimly lit by red emerency light, command was brightly illuninated by the screens, all of which showed nothing but bright white. Trance, floating above Harper's console, looked towards Beka with a serious expression which showed Beka the girl had no clue of what to do.

Floating towards her console, Beka noticed a slight bruise in Trance's face. "Trance, you okay?"

"Yes, I guess. I bumped my head, though…"

"So did I. Rommie's down, as well as the whole ship." Beka began pushing buttons on her console, but nothing happened.

Trance just floated in place, barely moving at all, and seemed overstrained. "We should do something before it gets cold in here."

"Also, what's with Harper's pod? Without power…"

"…the Nanobots can't help keeping stasis survivable. The thermal expansion should crush him shortly."

"Very optimistic, Trance." Beka watched the purple girl. Something was wrong, she sensed that. Whatever it was, it was out of place now.

Trance turned to look Beka in the eyes. "How are we going to fix it?"

"We have no engeneer. We should have thought about that before Dylan left. Who is going to fix this?"

Trance lifted her head and looked through the room. Then something caught her attention.

"Beka, look! The main screen!"

On the white glowing screen black letters appeared. They looked awfully bad, like writings from a little kid.

"What is that?" Beka resumed to push buttons, but still nothing happened. After a short time she gave up, hitting the console in frustration. The letters already covered half of the main screen and more appeared with each passing second.

"STUPID PIECE OF SHIT!"


End file.
